Killing Time
by I Changed My Pen Name
Summary: Alex has prepared herself to lose the wizard competition when Future Harper shows up and changes everything.
1. The Magic, Comfy Chair

**Sole Author's Note: Most of this story was planned out before a lot of season 4 happened. That means that some of it may not coincide with canon, but this is pretty much my take on canon, anyway. (**_**Rock Around the Clock**_**, for example, kind of killed me, but I may use it to my advantage.) **

_**_**__This story will include Jalex, but I would like to state for the record that I've never before shipped a 'ship that was not canon, so it's really the show's fault more than it is mine. If that irks and/or squicks you, I would like you to at least give this a chance because being true to the show is my main intention. (And this is NOT a romance fic first and foremost.)__

**On a final note, this isn't completely written out, but my goal is to post two chapters at time. In the likely event that that doesn't pan out, I will never post a chapter without a safety net (aka, the next chapter mostly-written).**

**Oh, and the writing will be kind of rough. I typically edit stories once they're all done and posted. **

**Anyway, without further ado, here's **_**Killing Time.**_

* * *

><p>Alex was taking a nap when she received the news. It seemed fitting in a way, that she was doing something she truly loved when her whole world began to crash down.<p>

She arrived at the sub station a little over an hour after she got the call; taking the subway was a bitch, but she had been living without magic for so long that by this point she was kind of used to it.

Per usual, there was not a customer in sight.

"Oh, hello, _mija_," her mother greeted her as she came out from the kitchen. "You're just in time for the lunch rush."

Alex surveyed the restaurant and nodded. "That seems about right."

"Yes, I know, it's a disaster. But I ask that you not mention it to your father when you go down to visit him. He does _not _deserve to die over this place."

Alex felt a brief rush of guilt. Her father had been in the hospital for two weeks and his little girl hadn't come to see him once. "How's he doing, by the way?"

"Your father? He's fine. Apparently he tried to bribe one of the nurses to bring him a three cheese omelet for breakfast." Her mother gave an exhausted sigh. "I don't think he'll be satisfied until he has his second heart attack."

"Maybe he's just trying to beat his high cholesterol score. Are Max and Justin in yet?"

"Justin hasn't left the lair all day and Max got in just before you. I think they're both in there now, waiting for that wizard guy."

Alex had always found it kind of charming, her mother's utter and complete disinterest in everything magical. Alex kind of wished she could be so disinterested. Instead, she tended to reserve her apathy for more important things, like school.

Speaking of which...

"How did your interview go, sweetie?" her mother asked, not even glancing up from the cash register. She appeared to be counting what little money was in there.

Alex felt her stomach drop to her feet. "Interview?"

Her mother looked up. "Yeah, the one with the art school. Did you get in?"

"I..." Alex decided to choose her words very carefully. "I don't know. I guess they'll have to get back to me."

Her mother nodded. "That makes sense."

Figuring that she had put off the inevitable long enough, Alex peaced out on her mom and went into the lair. She was met with the sight of her older brother Justin hunched over a book and her younger brother Max practicing what could kindly be called a karate pose.

"You dorks do know that the competition isn't today, right?" she asked, plopping down into her father's chair and throwing her legs over the side.

Justin gave her a glare, but didn't say anything.

Max stopped moving and raised an eyebrow. "The wizard competition?"

"Yeah, you may've heard of it," Alex said vaguely, staring at her wrist watch. "What time is the dude supposed to be here, anyway? I've got a long day of napping ahead of me."

"You were napping when I called you this morning," Justin pointed out.

"What can I say? I've got priorities."

"It wouldn't kill you to take things a little more seriously, Alex," Justin started, and God, was he really going to do this right now? "Whether you like it or not, we're all in this together."

Did he think that she didn't know that? He was there when she asked to be taken out of the wizard competition, and he was there when the dingbat Professor Crumbs told her that it was mandatory for all wizard siblings to compete. Her older brother had really crossed the line from paternal to overbearing at some point.

"I'll have you know, I take a lot of things seriously. For example, a homeless man tried to pee on my boots." Alex pointed at her shoes to illustrate her point. "And I kindly bribed him with a half-eaten sandwich I found in the trash to get away from me."

Justin furrowed his brows. "What on earth is that supposed to demonstrate? People skills?"

"Well, I was going to say it proves that I take my appearance seriously, but what you said works, too."

"The guy should be here any minute now," Max interjected. "And that's great because I think I've centered my Chi."

At Alex's confused look, Justin elaborated, "Max's new girlfriend is a dragon."

"She's not a dragon all of the time, just part of the time. Which is good because when you're sleeping with a dragon, how do you know which side's the wrong side of the bed?"

Justin went on, "It's some longstanding ancient curse, and Max thinks if he's the family wizard, he can fix her or something."

Max grinned. "Yeah, I'll totally be the hero. Or if not, who cares, my girlfriend's a dragon!"

Alex couldn't really fault that logic, but it brought up a weird feeling in her. It reminded her of Mason, and of how complicated it was...

Alex didn't really want to be a wizard. She had planned to just swallow her pride and walk away from the competition all the same. But that stupid wizard clause and the stupid old wizard with the stupid old beard had ruined everything. Now she was just going to _lose_, and Alex kind of hated losing.

Justin looked like he wanted to make some smart aleck comment to Max – and Alex didn't know what place he had there, given _his _previous love interests – but then the wizard portal swung open and a man Alex recognized stepped in.

"Hello," he said amiably, "I'm Mr. McFly, and I'm here to schedule your wizarding competition. You are the Russo kids, yes?" He winked.

"Hello, Mr. McFly." Justin stood and shook the man's hand. "It's so nice to see you, and may I say, that is a lovely robe you're wearing."

"Thank you, son, my wife bought it for me. But you do know that I am not going to be one of your competition judges, yes?"

Justin blinked. "Yes, I know that." He slowly sat back down.

"Now, let's begin. As you all know, since the sibling in the lead did not see fit to schedule the competition himself, the wizard counsel has decided to step in."

Alex slightly raised her wrist. "When's the competition going to be?"

"Well, that's what I'm here to discuss with you. I think it's fair that everyone in this room agrees on the date."

"No, I meant, what time?" Alex clarified. "I don't really do mornings."

Mr. McFly looked slightly taken aback. "It is typical wizard counsel procedure to have the competition in the evenings, Miss Russo."

"Okay, like, when in the evenings? Before dinner, after ...?"

"I want to know this, too," Max said, "because I don't think I can wizard compete on an empty stomach."

Justin rolled his eyes. "It's probably best if you ignore them."

"Now, now, I don't want to ignore them," Mr. McFly said pleasantly. "Why don't we start with the day and just work on the time from there?"

Alex gave a thumbs up.

Mr. McFly cleared his throat and began to read from a scroll that kept rolling past the entrance to the lair.

"I need you to confirm that you are, in fact, the three Russo siblings: Justin, aged 21; Alexandra, aged 20; and Maximilian, aged 18. Are you these Russos?"

"Yeah, but can you change my name to Alex? I'm not really feeling the full-name thing."

"That's perfectly doable," Mr. McFly said, and he pulled out a quill and scratched out Alex's full name.

"Yeah, and I want to be known as Bobby," Max added. "It makes me sound more approachable and handsome."

"Oooh, I like that," Alex said. "Put me down for Bobby, too!"

Max gave her a high-five.

Justin groaned. "Would you two cut it out? I don't want to be here all night."

"What's it matter? It's not like you have plans," Alex said.

"Stop projecting yourself onto me, Alex. For your information, I have a very big exam tomorrow." Justin turned back to face Mr. McFly.

That felt like a low-blow. The 'projecting' part was just typical Justin sass, but what really made it sting was that it was true. Alex stuck her tongue out at him behind his back.

The rest of the night was fairly uneventful. They agreed on a date two weeks in the future. Justin had checked his school schedule, and Max had checked his girlfriend's shifting schedule, and Alex had filed her nails.

"Well, that's settled. You should all make sure to be in this lair on the date we've arranged by 7:15 – which will give you time to eat, Mr. Russo, and to let your food settle, Miss Russo. You will receive further instruction then." Mr. McFly slightly paused, and then said quietly, "If any one of you isn't here, there will be, I'm afraid, dire consequences." He smiled again. "Good day, all."

* * *

><p>After the preliminary wizard competition meeting, Alex didn't feel like heading home. She didn't like being out at night without her magic anymore, plus everything was just too depressing. Harper and Zeke were being way too kind by letting her stay with them, but something must be wrong with her because she was starting to feel guilty for their charity. Plus, she had walked in on Zeke naked in the bathroom once and Harper stopped her before she could set fire to her eyeballs.<p>

Everything was too ... different. Her Dad wasn't around, so the house seemed too quiet. If she strained, she could hear her Mom turning the pages in her romance novel, or she could hear Justin scribbling away at his grad school work.

Alex didn't like it.

After tossing and turning on the couch a million times, she resigned herself to the fact that sleeping all day had the drawback of making you stay up all night.

She went down to the lair and sat in her dad's recliner again. She didn't even know why. She didn't consider herself a very sentimental person, but it felt nice and comfortable and made her slightly nostalgic. Plus, it was right below the wizard cable box which always had great shows.

At some point in the night, her mom came in and told her she was going to the hospital and did Alex want to come? Alex said no, and then realized that it must not be night anymore, if her mom was heading to the hospital.

She checked her watch. It was 7:15. In the morning. Gross.

Alex really couldn't see what was so great about the morning. It was cold and even the wizard cable didn't have any good shows on. Although she did get engrossed in a wizard soap opera, and maybe she did kind of get caught up in the witch's affair with a werewolf. But then it turned out that the werewolf was also in love with the witch's brother and things got kind of weird.

"No, Francisco, don't do it," Alex muttered, pulling the blanket up to her chin. "Don't you see that she loves you, fleas and all?"

There was a big dramatic pause, and the camera panned in on Francisco's face, slowly, and Alex should really turn this off because it was kind of dumb, and then someone literally dropped into the lair.

Alex let out a shriek, and then the person stood up and adjusted her peacock hat.

"Harper?" Alex asked.

It was Future Harper, and she had arrived via the IPP.

"Oh, hey, Alex!" Future Harper said.

Alex turned off the wizard TV and went over to her friend. "Harper, what are you doing here?"

"I was hoping that I'd find you, to be honest."

"You thought I'd be awake?"

Future Harper looked at her watch. "It's nine o'clock. Oh, right," she tapped herself on the forehead, "you're still big on sleeping-in."

Alex tried not to think too much about the implications of that statement. A future involving not sleeping- in seemed rather bleak. "You were looking for me?"

Future Harper nodded emphatically, and the peacock on her hat followed suit; it was obviously enchanted.

"Yes, I need you to use your time machine to take this to my publisher for me." Future Harper pulled a stack of papers from behind her back. "It's the first _Charmed and Dangerous _book. I've finally finished it after seventeen years ... but my publisher expected it ten years ago, so I'm running a little late."

Alex frowned at the book, and not just because she disliked books in general. "Harper, I don't think we have a time machine. Dad said time travel's strictly monitored by the wizard counsel, and oh, god, I actually listened in class that day."

But Future Harper didn't seem particularly perturbed. "Of course you have a time machine, Alex; it's right there." Future Harper pointed at her. Alex looked up and down herself.

"Where?"

"Right there," Harper insisted, still pointing. Alex twirled around. Harper sighed. "Not on you." She walked over to the recliner and patted it, coughing at the dust that sprung up. "Right here."

"That? That's just Dad's gross, old chair."

"Or is it?" Future Harper said, and then she grabbed the arm rest and flipped the cushion up.

There were buttons. Rows and rows of buttons.

There was a very visible panel that said TODAY'S DATE and then one underneath it that said INTENDED DATE. Alex wasn't a genius, but she was pretty sure she knew what that meant.

"Holy crap," she exhaled. "It's a real, live time machine." Alex walked around the recliner and inspected it. "I never would have expected this in a million years. I mean, this seems totally different than those pocket watches that take you to predetermined times."

Alex's thoughts were running a million miles an hour. She imagined all the cool things she could do with just such a machine, and Future Harper must've been reading her mind.

"Alex, I think you should really just take my book to the publisher and then come back. I don't want to be responsible for your being lost in time."

Alex sat down in the chair with a brand new purpose and a big grin.

"Alex..." Future Harper warned.

"What? What, we're just going to take your stupid book to your publisher and then come right back. Nothing in between."

"Oh, no, I'm not going with you," Future Harper said adamantly.

"Why not?"

"Because time travel's a messy business and I'd rather not deal with it any more than I have to. I'm already living thirty years in the past."

Alex narrowed her eyes at that. "If time travel's such a messy business, why are you letting me do this?"

Future Harper bit her lip. "Honestly?"

Alex gestured her on.

"Because I think you've already done it."

"Oh, well, in that case," Alex said, and she entered in the current date minus ten years into the panel.

"Alex, just please be careful, that book means a lot to me and I paid my rent with the advance."

"I'll be careful," Alex insisted. "I've got nothing else to do, anyway."

"Here," Future Harper said, "take this manuscript and this envelope to this address, and just leave it with the lady in the front office. Don't take any significant detours and just come right back."

"I'll be a good little girl," Alex said, and she really meant it. Of course, now she knew where the time machine was, so if she ever needed it for future use... "I'll see you later, okay?" Alex said, and then she hit the big, green button that said GO!


	2. McReery Time Reary

If Alex was forced to describe time travel, she would say it felt... grey. An odd way of putting it, but most certainly the truth. It wasn't quite as instantaneous as flashing yourself somewhere, and it felt a bit more tingly. And everything was grey. She still had a grey taste in her mouth when the chair stopped moving.

Alex stood and looked around the lair. Fortunately, there was no one in sight, and that was good because she wasn't in the mood to deal with explaining to anyone what she was doing, though she might've got a kick out of seeing her kid self.

According to the chair, which had the day of the week under CURRENT DATE, it was Wednesday, which meant she was probably in school. And her parents were probably down in the sub station. She could get out of there without being spotted, which was probably the easiest way to do things, and Alex really did love doing things the easy way.

All she needed to do was flash herself to the street.

Alex faltered. It had been so long since she'd done magic. The excitement of finding the time machine had made her forget. Maybe she had been looking for a bit of excitement, after that meeting with Mr. McFly had made her all weird.

She didn't even have her wand. It was stuffed in the bottom drawer of the dresser she had at Harper's, along with all the stupid drawings she had done in high school. Which meant that _if _Alex did magic, it would have to be wandless, and that was easy enough but _physically exhausting._

She looked down at the manuscript lying in the chair. "I told Harper I would turn you in, so I guess that's the least I could do. And, great, now I've stooped to talking to paper."

Alex picked the manuscript up and cradled it with her left arm, while her right arm's index finger pointed at her head, and then...

She couldn't do it.

Alex couldn't flash herself anywhere.

It wasn't that she was afraid, or anything. It was just laziness. Magic was complicated and it very rarely made things easier. What if Alex zapped herself onto the street and ended up landing atop someone? Bony landings sucked; it would be easier to just walk.

..._Walk_?

With a brazen attitude that only Alex could muster, she walked out of the lair, through the living room and down the stairs. When she got to the sub shop, there were actually customers hanging about, but there was no sign of her mom and dad.

Getting out to the street was ridiculously easy. And then she rode the subway all the way to Brooklyn, and then she went to the publisher's office, and then the lady at the front desk was talking on the phone and held a finger out to her like she was really taking up all her time, and then Alex called her some choice words and ended up getting escorted out, but not before handing in Harper's story, and, all in all, it was a pretty good day.

Alex was treating herself to frozen yogurt from the past when she realized that getting back to the lair wouldn't be so easy.

She went over all the ways she could do it in her head, but she was feeling kind of sleepy, so she took a nap on a bench and was only woken up when a woman poked her in the head and asked her if she was feeling depressed and looking for a way out.

Alex made it through a few minutes of conversation with the smiling lady before it dawned on her that she was talking to a Scientologist, and then she got the hell out of there and made her way to Waverly Place.

Night had fallen by that point, and she went up to the restaurant window. It was still light inside, even though the sign had been flipped to say "Closed."

She saw her family sitting at a table, taking a vote on something. A game to play, she realized. Justin was doing his homework, like a loser, and Alex could see herself slowly inching her glass of soda closer to his paper. She was going to spill and make it look like an accident. God, she had been a cute kid.

Her mom was insisting on Clue. Her father on Pictionary. Max was picking his nose and eating what he found, gross. She didn't have too much longer before they went upstairs, and then she could sneak into the lair through the freezer and hope that no one showed up while she was there.

Alex watched her family for about ten more minutes – she couldn't really tell time anymore; her watch had, inexplicably, stopped working, but there was still the clock above the shop – and then they all went upstairs, Alex tripping Justin on the way up. Alex heard her mother shout, "_Alex_!" even through the glass.

When everyone was gone, Alex went about breaking into the sub station, which wasn't very hard to do without magic. Alex had always been good with locks; all she needed was a stick and some spit.

When the door opened, Alex half-expected her father to run downstairs and ask what the hell was going on, but her father never ran anywhere, and if he had some magical anti-theft precautions in place, they didn't work on Alex when she came in, so she laughed and muttered, "Too easy," and went into the lair.

No one was there. She had gotten off scot-free. When she sat down in the chair, she was feeling a little too pleased with herself, but no harm, no foul.

She entered the date she had come from into the panel, pressed the Go! button, and everything felt grey. But then there was a pop that didn't sound very good, and unlike the first time she time traveled, the ending on this one felt rough. Alex flopped out of the chair and hit the floor.

"Oh, _nooooo_," she groaned. Something had gone wrong. She could feel it in her bones.

She also wasn't alone. Her mom was standing suspiciously by the spellbooks, and she jumped at the sight of her daughter.

"Oh, Alex, sweetheart, I was just –" she spoke quickly before breaking off and frowning as Alex slowly pulled herself to her feet. Her mom looked back and forth from the chair to Alex and then sighed. "Do I even w_ant _to know?"

Alex panicked, and, without thinking, she waved her arms and said, "_Just pretend I wasn't here, and we will both be in the clear_!"

It was actually a pretty good spell given that Alex made it up on the spot, and she didn't really know what she planned for it to do so when her mom's eyes rolled back into her head and she fell hard to the floor, Alex cringed. "Sorry!" she offered belatedly.

She looked back at the chair, and according to the time panel, she was five years short of her goal. But no matter how many buttons she pushed, the chair didn't time travel. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Alex said, punctuating each exclamation with a punch to the circuitry. "Why won't you work?"

She gave up and slid back down to the floor. She pulled her knees up to her chest. This was a mess. It was Thursday, according to the machine. What was she doing Thursday night five years ago? God, she couldn't remember. Probably talking on the phone to Harper or something. Or maybe she was out with her father, buying fast food, and they were on their way right now, and they would come in and see her and then she would get chewed out by her dad for something that, strictly speaking, he couldn't even yell at her about because she technically hadn't even done it yet.

"This is what happens when you try to help someone," Alex concluded aloud. She looked over at her mother's form sprawled on the floor. She was still breathing, so that was probably good.

Alex then looked down at her hands and wiggled her fingers, sparks on the tips.

She was blinking back the tears before she even realized they were there, and she must be getting her period or something, because there was no reason to cry about _this_.

"Okay, Alex," she said to herself. "Think. What do you know about time travel?" She began to pace in front of the chair. "Well, Dad said that you are not allowed to change the past and most time travel thingies have built-in things to fix that – Oooh, a reset button!"

Alex examined the rows of buttons. The first row of ten was red and the second row of ten was blue, and there was a big yellow button right above the big green button. Figuring that she had nothing to lose, Alex pressed the yellow button.

Everything turned grey again, but this time, Alex could still make out the lair, as it was just fuzzy and not completely devoured by the grey. And then it went back to normal as quickly as it started.

"Where am I now...?" Alex said slowly. The lair was the same, but her mother's fainted form was gone. She looked back at the panel; it was still Thursday, five years ago. She then noticed that, under that, in ridiculously smaller letters, it said: 10:07 PM.

Alex had gone forward in time about one hour. And that was just _great._

She hit the yellow button again. 11:07 PM.

Alex threw her head back. "Who invents a time machine to go forward one hour at a time? Jeez, I could do that myself."

Alex looked at her hands again and clenched her fists. She closed her eyes. When she opened them, the time machine told her she had gone forward another hour.

"That's good. By this rate, I'll be home in – Oh, I dunno, a _bazillion _years!"

Still, Alex figured it was her only shot, especially given that the time machine didn't seem to want to do years anymore. Not wanting to be spotted by someone in the lair, Alex made herself invisible, and continued to go forward an hour at a time, trading off between hitting the button on the chair and doing it herself.

By the time she hit three in the morning, her father was in the lair watching TV, so she wasn't able to use the chair at all unless he were to come with her, so she just continued moving forward herself until six when he left. At seven, Justin came in for a book. At nine, her mother and her father were both sitting in the chair kissing, and it was disgusting.

By eleven o'clock, Alex was completely drained, and she threw herself dramatically on the table. It was no good. She wouldn't be able to make it five years; she couldn't even make it twenty-four hours.

She needed some outside help. But who?

Justin?

No way. The last thing she needed was another lecture from him.

Max?

Alex loved her little brother... but he wasn't exactly the guy you'd go to when in need.

Her Dad?

... She really didn't want to go there.

But what other option did she have? The only person she could trust at this point was herself, and it's not like there were two of her...

* * *

><p>Alex had a knack for knowing when the halls at Tribeca Prep would be empty, so she wasn't nervous when she flashed into the school.<p>

It was lunch time, anyway, and all she needed to do was find herself and explain the situation. Still, walking around invisible didn't seem like a realistic option; someone could very easily step on her feet. What Alex needed to do was turn into a student and then she could walk around the school no problem.

Harper was her best bet, but Harper was most likely in the cafeteria with Alex, or hell, they might've flashed to France for lunch and then Alex would be totally screwed.

Then, as if by fate, Nellie was exiting the principal's office, and she smiled widely when she saw Alex. "Hey!"

"Faint!" Alex said, and Nellie went down almost as quickly as her mom. Alex had to hand it to herself; she was actually pretty good at that.

"Sorry, Nellie," she said as she rolled the girl toward the janitor's closet she knew would be empty. "It's just, a right place at the right time thing, you understand."

Once they were safely inside, Alex transformed herself into Nellie, making sure to copy the girl's appearance down to a T. She examined herself in the rusty mirror above the grimy sink. "You've got great skin," she commented. Nellie didn't reply.

When Alex got to the cafeteria, she thanked her lucky stars and Superman above that she was sitting right in plain view, eating lunch by herself (turning into Harper would've worked, damn it!) and she approached herself quickly.

"Hey, you!" she said, sliding into the seat next to herself.

The younger Alex looked up and grinned. "Hey!" she said with a big smile.

"Listen, I was actually hoping you could help me with something —" Alex began.

Younger Alex raised her eyebrows. "Homework?"

Alex chuckled. "No, no, nothing like that. See, I ran into a bit of a problem..." Alex paused when she noticed what her counterpart was eating. "What is that?"

Younger Alex held a fork up. "Chicken surprise."

Alex was more than a little confused. "But I hate-I mean, _you _hate school food. You always eat chips instead."

Her younger self widened her eyes. "That's true, huh?" She frowned down at the meal before smiling back up at Nellie. "I guess I just felt hungry for once! You know, it's not very healthy to just stuff yourself with junk food." She took a bite of the lunch. "Mmmm, delicious."

Alex felt everything slow down around her. She wasn't talking to herself _at all_; she was talking to Harper. She had caught herself on one of the days she had switched bodies with her, and wasn't that just the icing on the cake.

She began to bang her head on the table.

"Nellie..." Harper started, "are you okay?"

"What, me? Yeah, I'm totally fine. You wouldn't happen to know where Harper is, would you?"

"Harper?" Harper's face darkened. "She's probably at home, stuffing herself with popcorn and watching TV. You know, because it doesn't matter to _Harper _that _I _care about school. I mean, as far as _Harper_'s concerned, _her _perfect attendance is just fine as long as she stays here until twelve and then she just _doesn't care _at all after that, even though I work so hard – I mean, s_he – _works so hard at school."

Alex could just shoot herself about now. "Yeah, that sounds like Harper, all right. So she's back at my – I mean her – I mean, _your_ house?"

"Why would she go to my house? She knows my parents are totally crazy! ...About sandwiches, that is. My family owns a sandwich shop!"

Alex rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I've heard."

* * *

><p>Alex found herself biting Nellie's nails as she sat on the bench in the hall. Despite the somewhat depressing fact that no one asked Nellie what was wrong, Alex was relieved to be left alone. She had zapped home, but she didn't see herself. She also checked the abandoned subway grate, the abandoned house and all the other abandoned places she frequented. She even checked the school library, which was a sure sign of how desperate she was.<p>

Alex had always prided herself on being able to hide from people , but she didn't know that that extended to herself.

So she found herself back at the school, watching the students walk by, wondering if by some luck she would show up. By the time 3 o'clock came around, Alex resigned herself to the fact that she was gone. She was tempted to follow Harper to the sub station, knowing that wherever Harper went with her body, she wouldn't be far behind, but Alex was feeling less sure about confronting herself. She knew everything that she knew, so that very well likely meant that she would be just as stumped as she was right now, except doubly, and that was not a very pleasant option.

What Alex needed was an outside wizard. And then Alex heard a familiar voice.

"I'll show you stuffing my face in the trashcan!"

Alex jumped up in time to see a group of jocks high-fiving each other and walking away from the dork stuffed headfirst into the trashcan. Alex helped him out, hardly believing her luck.

"Thanks," TJ said, wiping the garbage debri from off his shirt.

"It's no problem. And I actually want to talk to you about something."

"Really?" TJ broke into a smarmy grin. "Oh, Nellie... I'm flattered."

Alex frowned. "_Why_?"

"Because," TJ pulled out a bottle of breath spray and sprayed it on his tongue, "you've decided to take the TJ plunge."

Alex fought the urge to back away. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure you do, Nellie." TJ draped an arm across her shoulder. "Last semester, we were lab partners. I saw the way you were making eyes at me."

"No, I literally meant that I don't know what you're talking about because I'm not Nellie. I'm –" Alex hesitated. She couldn't remember if she had told TJ she was a wizard at this point. It was probably best to play it cool, she decided. "I'm a wizard."

TJ dropped his arm and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "A wizard?"

"Yes, I'm a wizard, and I know that you're one, too, and I need your help."


	3. The Ears of a Bat

TJ crossed his arms and leaned against his locker. "I'm not a wizard." He smiled. "I am, however, an amateur magician." He pulled a rose out of his back pocket. "A flower for the lovely lady?"

"_Ugh_." Alex took the rose and threw it in the trash. "Look, can we stop with the act? I'm stuck here and I need your help."

That made TJ perk up. "Stuck here?"

"Yes, I used a time machine, and I ended up getting stuck here, five years in the past."

TJ looked around him and then motioned Alex toward him. Alex leaned in. He put his mouth against her ear and whispered, "You're crazy."

Alex pushed him away. "You don't believe me? Well, fine!" She concentrated and made a locker further down the hall open and close. TJ laughed.

"Nice trick."

She then opened his locker and watched in satisfaction as he got smacked in the face. He rubbed his cheek ruefully. "Even nicer trick."

Alex did it again, and TJ moaned and held his head. "How many times do I have to do that before you believe me?"

"Fine, I believe that you're a wizard," TJ said, "but I don't believe you're a time traveler."

Alex sighed and grabbed TJ and pulled him toward the janitor's closet. When they got in, he gasped at the sight of Nellie's body.

"What did you do to her?"

"I just knocked her out," Alex said quickly. "Look, I need your help because I was just minding my business when this lady from the future showed up, and she was all, 'Hey, I need you to take something to the past for me,' and I thought, _Sure, why not, it'll be fun and I'll be home for lunch_, but it's turned into _so_ much more than that because I went back ten years and got caught _here, _five years in the past, and the stupid machine won't go any further and all it does is move an hour at a time, and I'm really kind of desperate to get out of here."

TJ seemed to listen to Alex, but when she'd finished, all he said was, "I didn't have trouble believing that you were a wizard, just FYI."

"What do you mean?"

"I meant that I didn't believe you were a time traveler. Time travelers aren't allowed to do what you just did."

"What do you mean aren't 'allowed?'" Alex had always hated the word 'allowed;' as far as she was concerned, all it meant was that something was entirely doable and old people, usually with beards, disapproved. "I know that you're supposed to file paperwork or something, but I just used the time machine in our lair."

"You have a time machine in your lair? Like, an unsanctioned one? How does that even happen? Can I see it?" TJ was bouncing on the balls of his feet. Alex groaned.

"Look, guy, I just want to go home, and you're taking all this pretty well, so why don't you just tell me what you know about time machines and how to make the damn thing work?"

TJ looked thoughtfully at Alex. She ran her hand across her face, fearing that she might have started to change back, but she still felt unfamiliar features. "Are you and I friends?" TJ asked.

"Why does that matter?"

"Because you knew that I was a wizard, and you obviously came to Tribeca Prep for a reason." TJ narrowed his eyes. "Are you a student here?"

"Look, does it even matter? Really?" Alex said. "I've told you about my problem... and frankly, you're my only choice." Alex put on her most pleading look. "Can you help me?"

TJ hesitated just a moment before nodding. Alex breathed a sigh of relief.

"You said you can move forward an hour, so that tells me it's not busted. It's probably just the battery."

"The battery?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, the magic juice in it is probably low."

"Magic juice?"

"The juice in the battery. If you had the warranty you could probably send it in to be fixed, but given that you're messing around with an unsanctioned time machine, I don't think that's going to work out too well for you."

Alex crossed her arms. "Well, then, Mr. Smarty Pants, what do you suggest I do?"

"Bring me the battery here; let me look at it."

"How do I get the battery? Where's it at?"

"I don't know. Wherever there's space in the machine. What's it made out of?"

"An old recliner."

"A _recliner_...? Well, it's probably underneath it or something. I could come with you to look?"

Alex chuckled. "Nice try, Sparky, but I'm not letting you anywhere near my house."

Alex quickly made herself invisible and flashed into the lair. No one was around, so she got down on her hands and knees and stuck her arm into the back of the chair and felt around. Her palm met a flat surface and she pulled out a large, glowing blue rectangle. It had a plus sign on one side and a minus side on the other side. "Makes sense," Alex said.

She flashed back to closet and held the battery out to the TJ. He burst into giggles.

"Oh my god, what is this, from the _eighties_?"

"Probably. I think it's my dad's machine."

"Well, here, lemme see it." TJ took the battery from Alex and almost collapsed under its weight. "Heavy."

"Yeah... Not really," Alex said. "What do you think?"

TJ set the battery on the floor and inspected it. "It's an older model, definitely. Oh, and see here, the serial number's scratched off. Using old and illegal batteries for your time travel... Not the smartest thing you could do." TJ gave her a wry look. "You're not an honor student here, are you?"

Alex was not impressed with his desperation to fish out her identity. "Why does it even matter to you who I am?"

"It doesn't," TJ said simply. He turned back to the battery. "I don't know how to fix this. You could charge it up with your wand enough to get you back home, maybe. But you're probably better off having someone look at it. I could take it to my dad?"

"Please don't. I _really _don't want any more people involved in this."

"I wouldn't worry about it," TJ contended. "My dad does whatever I want him to."

Alex, of course, knew that. "I really just want to be done with this." She thought longingly of the nice, comfy sofa at Harper's that had her name on it. "You said I could use a wand?"

"Yeah, I think you can rig this with enough magic to this with a wand to get you home, but I wouldn't recommend using it again. And yeah, you're right, you should talk to as few people as possible."

"Well, I don't have a wand on me, and what do you mean I should not tell people?"

"You're time traveling wandless?" TJ sounded slightly awed. "That's pretty brave of you."

"Or maybe I'm just an idiot," Alex said with a sigh, and boy, was it true. She should've known that magic _always _makes things more complicated. "But no, really, dude, tell me about the other thing."

"Well..." TJ frowned. "You don't want to create a paradox."

"...I might've heard of that."

"That's why time travel's so weird," TJ said, "and why only novelty time travel devices are sold in the wizarding world. They have built-in time correction to make sure that nothing gets messed up. I've really never seen an unsanctioned machine before..."

"And you're not going to get to see it, okay? And I'm not going to mess anything up. Just fix this so I can go home!"

TJ smirked. "You haven't said the magic word."

Alex smiled sweetly. "I can do worse things to your head, you know."

"Hey," TJ said with a false enthusiasm, "look at this." He pulled his wand out of his back pocket and stuck it into the battery springs on the end. It glowed brighter. "I've done it!"

"Good, and don't even think about asking me who I am. Don't want a paradox, do we?" Alex still wasn't one hundred percent on the meaning of the word, but she'd watched enough television to be somewhat sure. "How long's this gonna take?"

"Probably a couple of hours." TJ frowned at the battery one last time. "We could go get a snack if you want?"

Alex didn't really want to go anywhere with TJ, but her stomach was growling, and he _had _helped her out. "Sure," she said, and then added, "and thanks. A lot. You're a good friend."

TJ gave a toothy grin, and then clapped his hands together. "Where do you want to eat? I've heard that Texas had good barbeque."

"I'm not really up to flashing long distances without my wand. Why don't we just walk somewhere?"

"Walk?" TJ said it like it was a dirty word. "If that's what you want..." He looked back at Nellie one final time before they left the closet. "You sure she'll be okay in here?"

"She'll be fine," Alex maintained. "Gordon only cleans on weekends, and even then he tends to use the storage closet upstairs because this one's usually locked." As they stepped out into the hall, she waved her hand and closed the door.

TJ nodded approvingly. "That's pretty good."

"Yeah, well, I spent more time here than I would've liked due to detention, and I got to know the building pretty well."

If TJ noticed the slip Alex gave about her identity, he didn't say anything about it. "Where do you want to go?" he asked.

Alex was about to answer when a voice cut her off. "Oh, how cute. Inter-nerd dating!"

Gigi – _of all people_ – was walking down the hall and giving her stupid smile. It was a weird feeling for Alex, seeing her rival again after all this time while being back in the halls of Tribeca Prep. She remembered being _so happy _when she graduated, and this was like a helltastic version of déjà vu.

"Gigi," TJ said flatly. "Just my luck."

"You _are _lucky, TJ," Gigi said.

At least Gigi was alone, Alex thought. She was always less sure of herself when she wasn't around her goons.

"You're lucky that any girl would talk to you, even one as pathetic as little Nellie here. Hi, Nellie," Gigi said in that _voice._

"Gigi," Alex said. "It's always such a _pleasure_. But, actually, TJ and I are just leaving, so you can go back to kicking puppies or whatever it is you do in your free time. Come on, Teej." And Alex grabbed TJ by the wrist and yanked him out of the school, leaving a stunned looking Gigi behind in the hallway.

"She really riles me up," TJ said as they walked toward the subway. "I'd like to hit her with a nasty wart curse, but I know that casting a spell on someone popular is just asking for trouble."

"What makes you say that?" Alex said, and then she saw a taco cart. "Oooh, tacos!"

While TJ and Alex sat on the curb and enjoyed their tacos, TJ led the conversation. Alex found out more about him than she had ever wanted to know, including the fact that his full powers didn't come in until he was fourteen.

"Gosh. No wonder you're so crazy with magic. I totally would've jumped in front of a cab if I couldn't do spells until then."

"It wasn't so bad." TJ spewed a bit of beef onto Alex's shirt, and she wiped it off with a disgusted grimace. "And I'm really not that bad with my powers. That's why I don't get wizard parents who are overly-cautious with magic. Like I said, as long as you don't cast a spell directly _on _someone, you're fine."

"What's that mean?" Alex reached for another taco from the stack of ten they had purchased.

"It _means," _TJ said slowly, like Alex was stupid or something, and she really hated that, "that mortals don't recognize magic if they're not directly exposed to it. You'd be surprised what their little brains overlook."

Alex instantly thought of Jenny, and if TJ truly held such contempt for mortals, it was no surprise he would treat an ex that way. "So what happens when mortals are directly exposed to magic?"

TJ shrugged. "They tend to notice things more."

Alex then thought of Harper and how many spells she'd cast on her friend over the years; she'd certainly taken the news that they were wizards pretty well, now that she thought about it. And Zeke, too.

"But they can't, like, figure out that you're a wizard unless you tell them, right?"

"Exactly! And the wizard counsel pretty much keeps that stuff on lock."

"I never realized that the wizard counsel was like the mafia."

"Dude, they're scarier than the mafia!" TJ insisted. "Haven't you seen their beards?"

"Yeah. Scary."

"Anyway," TJ said as he dropped the last taco wrapper to the ground, "we should probably get back. The battery's probably charged, and then you can go."

"Thank god," Alex said, but weirdly, she wasn't sure she meant it. Not that she could stay in the past, or that she even wanted to. But it just hit Alex that, the sooner she went back, the sooner the wizard competition was, and the sooner everything would change, finally and completely.

They hadn't gone very far from school, but the walk back felt much longer, given that TJ seemed to be uncharacteristically quiet.

The closet seemed undisturbed, and Nellie was still on the floor. The battery now glowed brightly even when TJ dislodged his wand from the coils. "You should be good to go," he said.

"Thank you so much, TJ. Really. I was in a total pickle without you."

"It's fine." He paused. "You still don't want to tell me who you are?"

But by the time Alex decided that she _did_, he had seemingly changed his mind. "It's really for the better if you don't. I guess I'll take Nellie and leave you to zap back to your machine."

With a grunt, TJ attempted to pick Nellie up, and it wasn't until Alex bent down and helped him that he was able to throw her around his shoulder.

"Are you sure you've got her?" Alex asked.

"Yeah," TJ said, "and it'll be fine. I'll take her to the gym and tell her she fainted during P.E."

"Nice cover story," Alex said appreciatively.

TJ smiled. "That's why I'm the best."

And with a flash, he was gone. Alex sighed and flashed herself back to normal. It felt weird being back in her own body. She idly wondered where her other self was right now, and if she was still adjusting from being Harper for the day.

"Time to go home," she said to the battery, and Alex should've known then that something was wrong, and not just because things always went wrong for her. It was that flash of blonde hair she saw out of the corner of her eye, and the way her mouth filled with grey when she picked the battery up.

All Alex could say was that one minute she was in the janitor's closet at Tribeca Prep, and then, the next minute, she was back in the lair, holding a magical battery and staring at the face of her high school nemesis.

Panic mode set in. Alex threw the battery onto the chair, and she rounded on Gigi. "What are you doing here?" she shrieked, and a younger Alex wouldn't have had any trouble at all blaming Gigi for this mess and asserting it was some evil scheme, but older Alex was older and Gigi wasn't even calling her a freak. She was just staring at her with big eyes, and a blanched face, and it was like she thought Alex was a ghost.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated. Gigi didn't say anything, or even move, and Alex groaned and sat down next to the battery. "Oh, this is bad," she moaned, and held her head in hands.

"What's going on in here?" Justin's voice asked, and it was just Alex's luck when his body followed suit and came into the lair. He did a double-take when he saw the high school girl, and Alex would've found it funny under funnier circumstances. "_Gigi_?" he asked. He quickly turned to his sister, and she could see just how panicked he was. "Alex?"

Alex gave a watery smile. "How was your test?"

"I don't have my exam until ten-thirty, Alex," Justin said in his _let's-not-change-the-subject _voice, "and it's barely nine."

"Oh, so the time machine worked!" Alex clapped her hands. "That's great! Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to Harper's..."

But Justin grabbed Alex's arm before she could go and forced her to look at him. "What time machine? What have you done?"

"Nothing."

"Really? Because your childhood rival is in our lair." He turned to Gigi and smiled, obviously trying to be comforting. "And by lair, I mean, our living area. Would you like a snack? Or perhaps a sandwich from downstairs?"

Gigi didn't respond, and just looked back and forth between Justin and Alex like they were speaking a different language and she was desperate for an interpreter.

Justin pulled Alex aside and hissed at her. "She is scared out of her wits."

"Well, she time-traveled, and that's kind of daunting."

"Where on earth did you manage to get a time machine that would let you _bring _someone from the past? You're not allowed to do that, you know!"

Alex sighed. "I've heard."

"How did this...? How did you...? I thought you weren't even doing magic anymore!"

"Justin, it's not like that," Alex started, but Justin cut her off.

"Why do you always do this? What, were you trying to have one last hurrah before the wizard competition? And let me guess, you somehow managed to bend the wizard counsel's Time Travel Restriction Decree 9845 to your very whim because you're Alex Russo, and you can do whatever the hell you want!"

Alex could barely believe it. "Why do I always do this? Why do _you_ always jump down my throat about everything without even trying to hear me out? Really, it's so weird how, every time I think we've finally made peace with each other, you end up being your stupid, jerk self again and I realize I was totally wrong!"

Justin sighed and rubbed his temples. "Let's not fight and just try to fix this. Start with the time machine. Where is it?"

Alex bristled at the implication that she needed Justin to help her fix things, but she was tired of dealing with this whole mess and she just wanted it taken care of.

"It's Dad's chair."

"Right. ...Wait. Dad's _chair_?"

"Yep. His recliner."

Alex turned to show it to Justin, and that's when they realized that Gigi was gone.


	4. Gigi Backwards

**Thank you for reading, I really appreciate it.**

* * *

><p>"Well, this is just great," Theresa said as she paced in front of the living room couch. "There's now a scared little girl running around the city, and we have no idea where she is."<p>

Alex was sitting at the counter, chewing thoughtfully on a piece of toast, unable to think of anything to say. She had totally screwed something up. It felt just like old times, and wasn't that ironic given the wave of nostalgia she had felt... god, had it really only been this morning?

Justin was standing by the couch, hand on his hip, brow creased in thought. "It's not that bad. She's just in shock. I doubt she'll do something reckless, but still, the sooner we find her, the better."

"And you better find her," Theresa said with a threat in her voice and her finger pointed, "because this is _not _getting back to your father. He's finally starting to get better and the doctors said, 'No stress whatsoever.'"

"Wait a second..." Justin started. "You're saying we can't talk to dad about his machine? Mom, you heard Alex; it sounds totally broken. It'll have to be fixed before we get Gigi back!"

"Yes, and I'm saying that you're a very, very smart boy, Justin, and I'm sure you can figure it out without your father's help." Theresa sighed and massaged her temples. "This has been a very long couple of weeks."

Justin, who was still slightly preening from his mother's compliment, turned to his sister with a decisive nod. "Mom's right, Alex," he said. "I can figure this out, but first, we should probably pay a visit to Harper."

"Which one?"

"The future one. She's the one who dragged you into this mess, so she's the one we should probably talk to."

"Huh," Alex said as she followed Justin into the lair. "So... you don't think this is my fault."

"What makes you say that?" Justin said as he went about setting up the IPP.

"You said that Future Harper dragged me into this. That sounds fairly exonerating."

Justin gave her a strange look. "I guess if you put it that way... I mean, she said you had already gone to the past, right? That means you were incapable of doing anything else, but that also means you were going to make the decision no matter what." Justin paused. "Yeah, I'm still gonna blame you."

"What do you mean by, 'incapable?'"

"Merely that it's impossible to change the past."

"It's impossible to change the past?"

"That's what my research has led me to believe." Justin motioned for Alex to stand beside him. "We'll head to where Harper's staying and ask her a few questions. Maybe by then, Max'll be back from his Gigi hunt."

But when they reached Harper's studio, it was completely abandoned. There were crates stacked to the ceiling and dust everywhere, like it was some long-forgotten storage place. "It looks like people haven't been here in years," Alex said, coughing.

"But that doesn't make sense," Justin said as he wiped at his eyes. He took a few steps forward and let loose another torrent of dust. "We were here just a few years ago ourselves."

"Is there, like, an abandonment spell?" Alex asked. She had always been rather fond of disguising spells. That one seemed kind of useful.

"Whatever's going on here," Justin said, "it's supposed to look like no one's been here. It also means that we have no idea where Future Harper is. Which means that the only person who knows how to fix the time machine is hooked up to a catheter at St. Mercy's."

"I can't believe Harper would abandon me like that!" Alex cried. "And after all I did for her. I'm the reason those stupid Charmed and Dangerous books even exist. And in more than one way!"

"Well, like I said, Alex, if she knew that you went into the past, she'd really have no other choice than to send you there, wouldn't she?" Justin flipped the switch on the IPP remote and Alex felt herself sucked into the vacuum. When they were spit back out in the lair, dust went everywhere. Alex coughed so hard, she was afraid she might leave a lung on the floor.

"Hey, guys," Max said as he came into the lair. "Bad news, Gigi wasn't at the Modern. Good news, she was at the zoo!"

"She was at the zoo?" Justin said quickly, taking several strides toward his brother.

"Yep," Max said with a wide grin. "She's in the sub station now."

"And it was really Gigi, not just some random blonde girl, or, I dunno, an elephant or something?"

"Justin, Justin, Justin," Max said with a shake of his head. He patted his brother on the shoulder and frowned at the dust that sprung up. "Why are you so dirty?"

"It turns out that Future Harper is MIA," Alex said. "Which means we are screwed."

"Oh," Max said. "Does that mean that I can't go back to battle the evil sorcerer who cast the spell on my girlfriend's great-great-great grandfather? Because I kind of made a promise."

"Yes, Max, that's exactly what it means." Justin frowned. "Is Gigi being watched?"

"Yeah, she's talking to Mom."

"Great, in that case we better get there before she bolts again."

Alex wasn't really in the mood to talk to Gigi, so she didn't know why she followed her brothers into the sub shop, or why she followed them to the booth where Gigi sat across from their mother.

"And then Rob Delaney broke my heart in sixth grade," their mother was saying to what appeared to be a rather out of it Gigi. Her hair was a mess and there were dark, dark circles under her eyes.

"Hello, Gigi," Justin said softly, like speaking to a skittish dog. "How are you?"

Gigi stared at him with wide eyes.

"Honestly, Justin," their mother said. "Have you no compassion?"

Gigi looked at Max. "You look a lot older."

Max grinned. "Thank you."

"There's an explanation for that," Justin said quickly. "See, there have been some experimental drugs developed in the past few months that have... made Max age very quickly in what seems to be a short amount of time."

"You time traveled, sweetheart," Theresa said, and Justin groaned.

"Mom!"

"What? Trust me, honey, when it comes to magic, it's best to just rip the band-aid right off."

"Magic?" Gigi's voice wavered slightly. Theresa nodded.

"These three are wizards." She pointed at her children.

"Very compassionate, Mom," Alex said.

"What? You've already brought the girl through time, now you wanna lie to her, too?"

"It is Wizard Rule number one –" Justin began.

"And I'm not a wizard," his mother cut him off. "So, there you go. Would you like a cup of tea, dear?"

Gigi looked at all of the Russos with her scared eyes, her gaze resting on Alex, making her feel uncomfortable. She was tempted to say some words to Gigi that she never thought she would, and she fidgeted at the thought. She decided to change the subject. "So, um, Gigi, where did you go?"

Gigi then stared at the wall directly behind Alex and spoke in a dead voice. "I went to my parents' penthouse. They didn't live there anymore, and the new residents hadn't even heard of them."

"You poor, poor thing. Come on, let's go upstairs. You're probably exhausted." Theresa slid out of the booth and made for the stairs. Justin watched Gigi with eagle eyes, as if afraid she would run away, but she followed their mother up to their apartment.

Max sighed. "At least Bobo and Piper were still around."

"Bobo and whosit?" Alex asked.

"Piper," Max repeated.

"The penguins at the zoo," Justin said.

"Yep." Max smiled. "Gigi loves penguins."

Alex was left to ruminate on that fact as her brothers went upstairs, too. She sat down at the booth and dropped her head into her arms. This had been such a long, weird day, and it wasn't even noon yet. Alex closed her eyes for a moment before hearing a knocking on the sub station door. It hadn't opened yet, so she didn't think it was a customer.

Instead, she saw Harper standing there with Zeke by her side, and she was waving emphatically. Alex dragged herself over to them and let them in.

"Alex, you got a call from Braveline Arts!" Harper said excitedly. "Maybe you got in!"

"Yeah, maybe you got in and maybe you can even live in a dorm on campus!" Zeke said brightly. Alex knew that he and Harper were both kind of anxious for her to leave, but of course they would never outright ask. And while Alex did feel guilty about stealing their couch, she did kind of enjoy making them squirm.

"Oh, I don't know about that, Zeke," she said, "I think it would be best if I could save my money a bit. Maybe stay with you guys a little while longer."

Zeke's face instantly fell.

"Whatever you think's best," Harper said, genuinely, and Alex felt that twinge of guilt again. "I mean, your family did let me stay with you guys."

"That's true," Zeke said, just as genuine, and yuck, did they have to be so nice? "The Russos _are_ awesome like that. Hey, let's go say hi!"

"Is everyone up?" Harper asked, and then Alex realized that they hadn't heard about the Gigi mishap, and she kind of told them the quick version of the story, not really feeling comfortable revealing to Harper that she had been the one to send Alex on the disastrous trip. To Alex's surprise, Harper seemed fairly vindictive.

"That's amazing!" she exclaimed. "Do you think Gigi was so freaked out she peed herself?"

"Harper," Zeke said, "do you really think it's funny?"

"Of course, I don't think it's funny; I think it's hilarious! Really, it's the best thing that's happened in weeks!"

Zeke raised an eyebrow. "The _best _thing?"

"Oh." Harper blushed. Alex was tempted to ask what was going on, but she already had her suspicions and she no longer felt the need to be rude.

"Do you wanna come see her?" she asked Harper. "I will warn you, she is being very, very weird. Hardly speaking at all."

"A Gigi that hardly speaks?" Harper sighed dreamily. "It sounds like heaven."

"Don't you think it's kind of petty to hold a grudge against someone who picked on you in high school?" Zeke asked as they went upstairs.

"Maybe you're right, Zeke. It's not like she's, oh, I dunno, Josh Perry."

"Harper! You know that's not fair! That bastard always picked me last in kick ball! That was a very traumatic year for me!"

"It was third grade."

"Yes, and between that and struggling with cursive, I'm lucky I didn't develop some kind of neurotic personality disorder!"

Alex very rarely let someone get away with walking into a comment, and she was fully-prepared to snark on Zeke, but Justin and Max were standing at the edge of the staircase, frowning at upstairs.

"Hey," she said, "what's going on?"

"Well, at five, me and my girlfriend are going to hit a movie, why do you ask?" Max said.

"Gigi's locked herself in your room," Justin said, "and she refuses to come out."

The first thing that Alex thought was that it really wasn't her room anymore. She had taken down all her pictures, she had packed up all her clothes and she had removed her bed the first time she had moved out. Justin at the time had been the one to proudly exclaim that the house was now Alex free. The only thing that remained was her pink fur wallpaper, and even that didn't really feel like Alex's anymore. It kind of made her sad to think about her empty room, so she really tried not to.

The second thing she thought was that the bitch had locked herself in her room. "Isn't someone going to get her out?"

"Mom thought it would be best if we tried to talk her out," Justin said. "And for the record, I agree."

A few seconds later, their mom appeared, frowning. "I tried to tell Gigi that I was just like her, a beautiful, normal girl stuck in a house full of crazy wizards." Theresa gave a flip of her hair. "Clearly she won't listen to reason."

"I say we leave her up there. We really have nowhere else to put her until the time machine's up and running." Justin began toward the lair. "Speaking of which, I'll try to work on it. Alex and Max, I think you two should try to find –" He paused as he looked at Harper. "Try to find HJ Darling one last time, maybe she could help us."

"Justin," Zeke said, "can I please, please, please see the time machine?"

"Yeah, Zeke," Justin said with a smile. "In fact, you may be able to help me with some of the more technical aspects."

"Cool, and when it's fixed, can I go forward to see the robot apocalypse in action? It's kind of my dream."

"I dunno, Zeke, it seems kind of..." Justin's voice faded away as the two left the room.

When they were gone, Harper turned to Max and Alex. "Why are you guys trying to find HJ Darling? Can I help? I _love _her."

"We're trying to find her because she's the one who told me to the use the time machine, Harper," Alex said, hoping that would fend off any questions. "Do you know where she lives besides in New York?"

"Well, I've heard that she owns a castle in Scotland."

"She owns a _castle_?"

"That's what I've heard. But why would she send you back in time? How did she know about your adventures, anyway?"

"Honestly, Harper, I have no idea," Alex said, "but we should probably try and find her."

"Okay, but can I please go knock on Gigi's door and laugh at her just one time?"

"It's nice that you wanna make her feel better, Harper," Max said, "but I don't think Gigi's up for company."

"Come on, let's just scan the wiz web and see if there's any information on HJ's castle," Alex said.

"While you kids do that, I'm going to go open the shop. If any of you feel like helping me run orders, our one customer will probably be very grateful," Theresa said as she headed downstairs.

* * *

><p>When Alex, Harper and Max landed back in the lair, Alex promptly went about ringing out her hair.<p>

"Really?" Justin slid out from underneath the levitated recliner. "You're just gonna do that all over the floor?"

"Not to mention it's probably terrible for your follicles," said Zeke, who was kneeled beside the chair.

"I don't _care_," Alex grunted as she pulled a piece of seaweed out from her behind her ear. "_Gross_."

"I can't believe it," Harper said, pulling her cell out from her pocket. "My one chance to prove that the Loch Ness Monster exists and I find that my phone can't take pictures underwater." She tilted her phone upside down and watched the water trickle out of it with a grimace.

"I take it you guys didn't find HJ Darling." Justin sat up and crossed his arms.

"Nope, we did, however, find her castle, which is guarded by a real live moat." Alex sighed, and looked down at the sopping, cold clothes she wore.

"No way," Zeke said. "I've always wanted a moat!"

"It was actually really cool," Harper said. "But actually, babe, I think we have to go."

"Oh, hey, you're right." Zeke stood and nodded down at Justin. "You'll be cool?"

"Yeah, thanks for the help, man."

"Where are you going?" Alex asked. She was interrupted by the drying spell Max performed and she gave him a smile for a thank you.

"Not quite as fun as riding in the dryer," he concluded with a frown. "Anyway, I think I'm going to go check on Gigi."

He left the room quickly and Harper grinned. "Zeke and I are going to Pennsylvania for the weekend. We're meeting my parents."

"Parents, huh? That's a pretty big deal."

"No, it's not, it's actually a very calm deal and very, very normal and nothing to worry about, _thank you very much_," Harper said quickly, shooting a glance at Zeke, but he shrugged.

"I'm perfectly fine about it."

"Well, good luck to you both," Alex said. She felt happy for them, she really did, but then why did her chest clench up when they left the room?

"You can't live with them forever, you know." Justin's voice broke into her thoughts. He was back underneath the recliner and frowning. Alex contemplated dropping it on top of him, but only for an instant.

She decided not to dignify her brother's obvious comment with a response and changed the subject. "Do you think you can fix it?"

"Perhaps... given time. And with a time machine, we technically have all the time in the world. Still, the longer Gigi's here, the more uncomfortable I get."

"Why?"

"Longer time periods are harder to erase from memory, and Gigi will probably be much happier to have this all out of her system, for one. And two, I just have a bad feeling."

"Does Justin have a case of women's intuition?"

"Laugh all you want, Alex, but I think this is legit."

"Okay, okay, I believe you. Can you tell what's wrong? TJ thought it was the battery."

"The battery's a symptom, not a cause, as far as I can tell, but this is some complex, complex magic." Justin paused. "If Dad did this, I'm fairly impressed."

"How did the battery zap me back here, anyway?" Alex had to ask, and Justin looked at her and grinned.

"It's great. It's actually one of the more ingenious aspects of the machine. Everything is spell-locked with a honing device. Once you charged the battery up it contacted with the machine and went with it to where it was designed to go. It's a flawless plan, if, somehow, you're stuck in time with a broken battery, for example. Of course, there are always flaws, and sucking Gigi in with you is a pretty big one. Still," Justin looked back at the machine. "if I could just tell what was wrong..."

Alex had a great idea. "Why don't you just use the smarty pants?"

"I'm pretty sure Dad got rid of them after you used them for help in the contest."

"Oh." Alex thought for a moment. "What about the undo dust?"

"Firstly, that doesn't work with interdimensional magic, and secondly, it's all gone. Remember? Dad was really mad about it."

"Oh, yeah..." Alex trailed off. "I wonder what happened to it."

"I have feeling Max used it for something. Probably as bait for invisible monsters."

Justin said nothing else and Alex could tell that she was not needed.

She left the room and decided to head upstairs.

* * *

><p>By the time evening came around, Alex found herself all alone once again. Her mother was back at the hospital, Max was out with his girlfriend, and Justin was hard at work on the machine.<p>

Gigi was still, there, though, still up in her room. She was oddly quiet, and Alex was hit with the morbid thought that Gigi might've hung herself in the closet. She shouldn't really be thinking that way, of course. Gigi was probably fine, if a little terrified, and it really was all of Alex's fault that she was even here in the first place.

Alex's stomach grumbled and she went to the kitchen and made herself a sandwich. While laying out the bread, she put down four slices for some reason, and then she grabbed two slices of ham, and two slices of cheese, and really, quite a bit of lettuce. She was halfway through putting the mustard on when she realized that she was, in fact, making a sandwich for Gigi, too.

Maybe Alex really was nicer than she gave herself credit for. She brewed some tea and poured two mugs, and then put Gigi's meal on a tray and carried it upstairs.

Alex had completely been intending on leaving the tray in front of the door, but some reason her knuckles knocked. "Gigi," her mouth said of its own accord. "Gigi, are you okay?"

Her mind was assaulted with images of Gigi, blue in the face, eyes puffed out of her head. "Gigi," she repeated. "I know this must be scary for you and I feel like crap. I didn't mean to put you through that. I hope you're able to eat because, um, I made you some food, and... I guess I'm just sorry. I'm sorry, Gigi," she said, and, weirdest of all, she totally meant it.

There was no response, and Alex thought about breaking down the door. She had set the tray on the floor and had begun rolling up her sleeves when it opened a crack, and Alex was met with the sight of Gigi's puffy, tear-stricken eyes.

"Alex," she said quietly.

"Yes?"

"What did you say?"

Alex sighed and felt her shoulders fall. "I said I'm sorry, Gigi."

What happened next completely took Alex by surprise: a sobbing Gigi attacked her with a hug. "It was so awful," Gigi said between snuffles. "I snuck into the closet and there were two Nellies and TJ and my parents and the penguins and the zoo, and I really, really just want to leave."

"I know, Gigi, and we're really working on it," Alex offered with a pat on the back.

Gigi let out a loud sob at that and then blew her nose into what Alex hoped wasn't her hair.

"I always knew you were a freak," Gigi whispered, and Alex had to laugh at that.


	5. The Fish Isn't Talking

**Sorry this took so long; my computer died. I figure this story will be about 20 chapters long, and at the rate I'm going, we should be done sometime before 2015 rolls around. (I can't even tell if I'm sarcastic or not!)**

**I'm gonna try to post the next chapter very, very soon. (Fingers crossed.)**

* * *

><p>It took four-and-a-half days before Justin declared that it was hopeless. "I can't concentrate on sending Gigi back and studying for the wizard competition <em>and <em>finals." He really was quite a wreck. "I don't know enough about time travel theory, and I certainly don't know enough without going to Wizard Hall and looking up any information anyway."

It was a pretty big deal for Justin to admit that he didn't know something. "Is it really so bad if Gigi stays here?" Alex said. "I mean, she doesn't really seem to mind. Max, can you pass me the potatoes?"

It was the last family meal before their father came home, and Theresa had made meat loaf and potatoes. Alex figured she was trying to use up the last of the groceries before her dad came home because the Russos were officially going "healthy" after that. Alex just added it to the long list of changing things.

Max handed the bowl to Gigi, who passed it wordlessly to Alex. She hadn't talked to her since the break down, and Alex told herself that it didn't bother her, even though it kind of did. She looked down at Gigi's lap; she sat perilously on the edge of the chair, as far away from Alex as possible.

"Why don't you wanna go to Wizard Hall again?" Max asked. Justin sighed.

"Our competition is coming up, and I really don't want to draw attention to this. Breaking the rules of time travel is even worse than exposing magic."

Alex could've laughed at how pale Justin went at saying that, but instead she decided to roll her eyes. "You worry too much. Everything'll be fine."

"Of course _you _don't care, Alex," he said. She shrugged.

"We should be worrying about your father," Theresa said. "I don't want him to have to deal with this. But..." she paused, "maybe he won't mind it. I think he likes dealing with magic, deep down. Maybe it'll make him feel better."

"I still can't believe he didn't tell us he had a time machine," Alex said.

"I can," Justin said. "For one, him having it in the first place is extremely illegal, and also, telling us – and by us, I mean you – is just asking for trouble."

"It's weird that you guys have rules," Gigi piped up, surprising Alex in the process. "Like, why are you guys afraid of getting in trouble? Can't you just erase it all with magic?"

"What do you mean?" Justin said.

"Like, if the magic cops or whatever realize that you have a machine, can't you just erase their memories or banish them to another galaxy or something?"

Max grinned. "Banish them to another galaxy? Bad_ass_."

"Magic doesn't work like that," Justin said. "It's based on the elements of this earth and the energy confined within. It's not that only wizards can mess with magic, it's that we're more genetically susceptible to dealing with the energy. The wizard competition, for example, isn't about stripping away our ability to access the energy, it's just about putting a block on it, or by magically flowing all the energy allotted to our family into only one wizard."

"I think you've lost your point in there somewhere, buddy," Alex said. Gigi was frowning, obviously confused, and even Theresa said, "I'm not following, honey."

"Sorry, I was just being long-winded. Basically, our magic is based around earth and the immediate planets, so we can't send them to another galaxy, and we can't stand up against the wizard counsel because we're not strong enough, energy-wise, so we couldn't erase their memories if we wanted to. Not to mention that erasing memories is another big no-no to the wizard counsel." Justin looked down at the book in front of him. "Do you think magical theory will be tested on during the competition?"

"Probably, and then I'll just write down what you said just now and hope that's enough," Alex said. Alex remembered Professor Crumbs saying that she had to _try_ during the competition, and she really was going to do it to the best of her abilities. Of course, she wasn't going to try to supplement her abilities with studying, or anything crazy like that.

"Don't worry, Justin. If anyone can ace a test on magical theory, it sounds like you." Theresa patted him on the arm before gathering her plate and heading to the kitchen. "Is everyone done?"

Alex looked down at her plate. She hadn't touched the meatloaf, but she'd had three helpings of mashed potatoes. Oh, mashed potatoes, with butter and garlic and little bacon bits all hidden inside, how she would miss thee.

Justin gathered up his books and continued reading one as he headed upstairs, and Gigi mutely floated after him, presumably up to Alex's room, in which she had barricaded herself. Alex had been taking the couch, which didn't bug her in the slightest because she kept waking up in the middle of the night and walking around, anyway.

"Hey, Alex," Max said, "can I talk to you for a second?" He had slid into Gigi's seat and was talking pretty quietly.

"Sure, but if it's about any of that stuff Justin said, I really, really don't care."

"No, it's not about that boring magical theory crap," Max said, and Alex gave a slight smile before realizing that her younger brother in fact looked pretty serious.

"What's on your mind, Max?"

"I found where Gigi's parents are," Max said. "They're in Connecticut."

"Oh, great. If we can't send her back, we'll just throw her there."

"But that's just it." Max frowned. "They didn't even remember having a daughter."

That made Alex sit up straighter. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't know much about this time travel stuff," Max said, "and frankly, thinking about it too much makes my head hurt, and not in a good way. But, like, if we sent Gigi back, she'd be there, right? She'd exist in two places at once?"

"I guess..." Alex said slowly.

"But, then, if, like, we didn't send her back, they'd still remember her and, like, be worried about where she went, right? I mean, she could've been kidnapped or something and they wouldn't know."

Alex hadn't thought of _that_. She hadn't thought of Gigi's family or friends... People that would _miss _her.

"There weren't any police reports about it, either," Max said, and it truly hit Alex that her younger brother had done his homework.

"What are you saying? Memory spell?"

"That's definitely how it seemed to me. Any time I tried to bring up Gigi, it was like they _almost _remembered, but then it went away again."

"Have you told Justin this?" Alarm bells were going off in Alex's head, but she couldn't tell why. She couldn't piece this together at all.

"And freak him out even more? No way." Max shook his head. "I don't know what to do."

"Who do you think erased their memory?"

"I don't know. Someone trying to make Gigi disappear?"

"I don't think anyone wants Gigi to disappear," Alex said. "Maybe gain fifteen pounds and suffer a hideous break-out, but not _disappear_."

"Then why would someone erase Gigi's parents' memories?"

"The only reason I can think of is... Is if they didn't want someone to miss her. If they didn't want people to look too closely into her disappearance." Realization washed over Alex like an ocean wave. "It was someone who didn't want people to investigate. Someone who didn't want people to find out about time travel."

* * *

><p>Alex had duct-taped up the magical Jack-in-the-Box and had asked it point blank where Harper Finkle was.<p>

"She's in Pittsburg at this very moment in time," he had said.

"And where else?" Alex had pressed. He had refused to answer, so Alex had cranked him up again. "Where is the Harper Finkle who's old?" she'd asked through gritted teeth. This seemed bad. Alex didn't know why, but she'd had a bad feeling.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but I can only trace one Harper Finkle and she's in the United States."

"You can only trace one? What does that mean?" Alex demanded.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to – "

Alex squeezed the clown by the neck. "Tell me."

"All I know is she is not currently in this time period, although sometimes she is."

"She's not here?"

"No."

"But do you know where she is?"

"I have no idea," he said. "If you ask me later, she may be around, and then I could tell you."

"But I don't _have _later," Alex said. She looked at the chair and then frowned. "Or maybe I do. It would just be perfect if you could tell me exactly where she'd be and when. Wait!" And then an idea hit Alex. "It's perfect!"

"What's perfect?" the clown asked, but Alex ignored him. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on the time spell. When she opened her eyes, the lair was the same, but the jack was back in his space. _Awesome_, Alex thought, _I think I did this right._

Alex did the invisible spell. "It's easier to be naughty / when you're someone others can't see." It was one of the more complicated spells to do as far as her powers went, but Alex never had trouble remembering it. It sounded mischievous and useful, and so it had always stayed in her mind.

Alex could do this, but moving time hurt. But at least she had her wand. When she'd gone to Harper's to get some clean blouses and underwear, she grabbed her wand for some reason, rationalizing that she'd probably need it for something, maybe. She hadn't even thought of this.

She brought up the calculator app on her wand. 24 times 4 was 96. Add in a few more hours ish, and Alex was looking at doing this spell one hundred times. It sounded like a drag, but she could totally do it.

This time, Alex wasn't going forward. She was going back. Back to exactly where she knew Harper would be. Back to the time Harper had given her the manuscript. Maybe then she'd get some answers.

"Okay," Alex said aloud, partially to psych herself up, "let's get cracking."

She went back another hour, and Max was in the lair, pacing, obviously thinking about the Gigi thing.

Another hour.

Justin was studying.

Another hour.

There was no one.

Another hour.

No one.

Another.

The wizard mail spit through the portal.

Another.

Nothing.

Another.

Alex paused to the rest.

She counted. She'd gone back seven hours. Great. Only ninety-three more to go.

When Alex got to the hour immediately before Harper came, she felt so happy she dropped to her knees. She was shaking all over and there was pain that started in her core and spread to her limbs, which ached like she'd run a marathon, or maybe a mile in gym without stretching, or, like, walking. But it hurt in a good way. It had been a lot of work, but Alex had almost made it. She could do it.

"Hello, Dr. Martin," Justin was in the lair, talking on his phone. "I sent you an e-mail, but I also thought I'd leave you a message. I will not be able to make it to my midterm this morning. I have a family emergency, but I hope that I can reschedule. If that's not the case, then I understand. Thank you." He hung up and looked at his phone.

Alex had completely forgotten about Justin's test.

Justin dialed another number. "Hey, Max? Have you found Gigi yet? No? Great, well, check places she goes. The Modern? Fine. Okay. Keep me updated."

He hung up and muttered something to himself before leaving the lair.

Alex closed her eyes. Back, again.

"Alex, just please be careful, that book means a lot to me and I paid my rent with the advance."

"I'll be careful. I've got nothing else to do, anyway."

"Here," Future Harper said, "take this manuscript and this envelope to this address, and just leave it with the lady in the front office. Don't take any significant detours and just come right back."

"I'll be a good little girl."

From her spot on the floor, Alex watched as her past self pushed the green button and then disappeared into a bright, white blur.

"I really, really hope this works," Harper muttered to the space where the chair used to be.

Alex chose then to make herself visible. "Hope what works?" she said.

Harper jumped and clutched at her chest. "Alex? What are you...?" She looked to the space where the chair used to be.

"I've come back to ask you about the time machine."

"Back?" Harper asked.

"Yes, back. And we better not talk long because I'm pretty sure that in a few minutes, I'm going to reappear in here with Gigi in tow."

"Gigi...?" Harper frowned. "Are you saying you brought Gigi back from the past?"

"Yes. The stupid machine is broken, and don't act like you didn't know that, and don't act like you didn't erase Gigi's parents' memories."

Harper blinked her big eyes and looked back at the empty space before returning her gaze to Alex. "I'm telling you, Alex," she said. "I didn't know that the chair was broken, and I didn't know that Gigi – _Gigi, Gigi? –_ would end up back here in the past. I mean, the future. I mean, whatever it is for you. Or her. Or something."

Alex could always tell when her best friend was lying, so she nodded slowly. "You're telling the truth."

Harper stuck up two fingers. "Scout's honor. But gosh, you're right, we should probably get out of here." Harper grabbed Alex by the arm and led her to the IPP. It sucked them up and landed them right into Harper's studio apartment, which looked exactly like it did the first time Alex had been there. She looked at the glass plates aligning the walls.

"But I thought..." Alex spun around. "What's going on here?"

"I know." Harper went around the counter and took off her peacock hat. She petted the bird and fed it a nut. Alex watched as it nibbled at her fingers. "The place is an absolute mess. I haven't really been very organized. Would you like some tea?"

"What the hell is going on?" Alex said. "Justin and I came here and we didn't see anything."

"Oh, right," Harper said. "It was probably because I wasn't here."

"Because you weren't here?"

"Yeah, I have a cloaking pedant." Harper pulled a silver chain out from under her top and pointed at the crystal on the end. "It's very powerful."

"A cloaking pedant?" Alex asked.

"It's a good way of keeping magic off of the wizard counsel's radar," Harper said.

Alex took a few steps toward the counter before being hit by a dizzy spell and closing her eyes.

"Alex, are you okay?" Harper exclaimed.

Alex must've fallen to the floor at some point, because her friend was helping her up.

"I just did a lot of magic," Alex said. "I'll be fine."

"You better be. Here, sit down." She pushed Alex to the desk chair and then smiled. "Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Alex told Harper a quick version of the story. "I didn't know that all that would happen, Alex. It sure sounds like a mess."

"It's a _total_ mess," Alex said. "And I figured that you had something to do with it."

"No, I didn't do anything. I really just wanted you to drop my story off. I didn't know that the time machine didn't work."

"Tell me what you do know," Alex said. "Who told you I took it back in the first place? Me? And if so, what else did I tell you? What do you know about the future? And I'm not asking for something big, like lottery numbers or something – just tell me how we fix this, so I can go ahead and do that."

"I'm sorry, Alex, but telling things about the future is a big, big no-no."

"Great, now you sound like Justin," Alex said.

"You should listen to your brother. He's very wise."

"I _know _that, okay? But I need to figure out how to fix the machine. I need to sort out this whole thing before the wizard competition happens." Alex frowned. "Do you know what happens with that?"

Harper shook her head. "I am not telling you about that, Alex."

"Fine," she conceded. "But at least tell me about time travel."

"Well..." Harper began. "It's not like time travel's a big thing in the future. It's still against the rules."

"But if it's against the rules, how were you allowed to do it?"

"We're merging into I-can't-tell-you territory."

"Fine, fine, fine. And you can't tell me how to fix my machine?"

"I'm sorry, Alex, you know I'm not a wizard. Or knowledgeable about wizard device-type things."

"So I basically came back to talk to you for nothing?"

Harper looked affronted. "Well, if having a nice conversation with your best friend counts as _nothing_, then, yes, I guess so."

"Harper, you know I didn't mean it like that."

"I know. And I'm sorry I can't help you more. But wait, oooh, I can give you something!" Harper reached around her neck and undid the chain. She held the cloaking pendant out to Alex, who let the crystal rest in her palm. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it contained a white, shifting mist.

"Cool," she said.

"Here." Harper went about clipping the pendant around Alex's neck, and for some reason, Alex was reminded of the glowing necklace Mason had given her. It was a weird thing to think of, and Alex had always tried so very hard to not think of Mason related stuff. It must be because she was so tired.

When the crystal touched Alex's chest, she shivered.

"Oh, yeah, when you get goosebumps, that means it's working."

"What if I'm just cold?"

Harper raised her eyebrows. "Maybe you just _think _you're cold."

Alex chuckled and looked down at the pendant before returning her gaze to her friend. "Won't you be needing this, though? I kind of get the feeling that you're not really supposed to be in this time, and keeping your existence hidden from an entire wizard counsel is a pretty big deal."

Harper shrugged, but Alex thought she saw a suspicious glint in her eye. "I'll be able to get another one pretty easily."

"You really think so?

"Oh, yeah."

Alex looked back down at the crystal. "I've never heard of a cloaking pendant before. Are they very rare?"

"A little. That one's the only one."

Alex gaped at her friend. "The _only _... but, you just said you'd get another one?"

"I think you're forgetting, Alex," and Alex hadn't been imagining it, Harper seemed awfully smug, "that I have a time traveling wizard on my side."

"Oh, hey, that's right, it's that thing you won't tell me anything about."

"It's really for your own good, Alex."

"I know. I know a lot of things are for my own good."

Alex and Harper found themselves standing under the IPP again, and Harper hesitated before speaking, offering quietly, "You know, with you and Mason ... I think, sometimes, things that seem like they're for no reason – or even for one reason – are, in fact, for many reasons. Does that make sense?"

"Not even a little bit." Alex sighed. "I guess I should be getting back to my own time now."

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Harper asked, concern in her voice. "Time traveling on your own is rough stuff."

"I'm not really sure about anything right now," Alex said. "Thanks for the pendant, and thanks for trying to help."

"I'm sorry, Alex, I wish I could do more magic." Harper frowned, but then brightened. "You know what always cheers me up? _Delicious_ _treats._"

Before Alex could object, though, Harper was handing her cookies, and Alex ate them politely, smiling and nodding all the while. When she got back to the lair, she was tempted to forget the fact that she needed to move four days into the future. In fact... There was an alarm app on her wand.

It was so hard to stand up straight anymore. She was so _tired_. All she wanted to do was rest her eyes for just one moment, lie down and let her limbs breathe.

Alex flashed herself to her room. It would be a while before anyone came into there, especially given that it took them a couple of hours to find Gigi, so she conjured up some pillows and a blanket and closed her eyes. If Alex were her usual self, she would've thought of a much better plan, as magical plans were once a source of pride for Alex, but blame it on the fatigue or blame it on the fact that she hadn't been magical for months, and Alex wasn't on her A Game.

And she knew as much when she was woken up by Gigi's shrill scream.


	6. The Truth Is Good

Alex sat up quickly. "Whosit, whatsit," she mumbled. She blinked a few times and let her vision clear. Gigi was pressed against the closed, locked door, staring at Alex with large, fearful eyes.

"Oh, not you again," Alex mumbled. She didn't feel fit to deal with this. She dropped her head down. Everything hurt. She felt like she had wizard flu. She didn't know why she had decided to nap here. The pink fur wallpaper made her heart feel that funny way it had the last few months.

"I'm sorry," Alex said to Gigi, still frozen. "I didn't mean to surprise you."

There was a slight knock on the door. "Gigi?" Theresa's voice called. "Are you all right?"

Gigi's head slightly tilted to the door, almost like she couldn't decide whether it was safer to open it or not. Alex was amused, but chuckling seemed like too much work. "Last you saw me, I was downstairs, right?"

Gigi nodded, slowly.

Theresa spoke again. "Gigi, I'm gonna go get my high school yearbook and maybe we can look at the pictures together, okay?"

Gigi didn't respond. Alex tried to stand up, and managed it, but wobbled a bit, like a baby doe on new legs.

Gigi slid down to the floor and pulled her knees up to her chest. "Are you all right?" she asked quietly.

"I think so," Alex said.

"What's -" Gigi stopped and cleared her throat, like if she spoke too loudly Alex might make her explode. "What's that around your neck?"

"Oh, this old thing?" Alex looked at the pendant and then dropped it with a scoff. "Just some poor ghost soul I trapped for all of eternity." Alex grimaced before she could see Gigi's reaction, and she was surprised when she felt a body close to hers. To her right stood Gigi, wearing an expression that Alex couldn't quite decipher.

"I don't know what's going on," she said softly. "Please … help me."

Alex didn't know what to say. Gigi looked so sad and pitiful, but she had only just barely begun to open her mouth when everything went black. She was no longer in her bedroom. She was sitting in Harper's old room, from before the move. Harper was sitting at her desk and painting what looked like clress forms into deformed female bodies. She had her back to Alex and was wearing large black headphones, bopping along to whatever song she was hearing in her head. It changed again, and this time the one with her back to Alex was Alex herself, but her face was worn and she was looking in a mirror twirling the pedant she wore around her neck – _the cloaking pedant, _Alex thought – in between her thumb and forefinger and sighing. Then everything went black once more, and all Alex saw was a flickering candle. She tried to step toward it, but her legs were like bricks. Her face appeared above the candle, and this time she had dramatic black eye make-up and a long, blonde streak in the front of her hair. "Alex," she heard herself say. "I think it's time to wake up."

Alex opened her eyes and took in a deep breath like she had just been pulled out of Harper's moat. She looked at her surroundings and realized instantly that she was on the floor of the lair, and Justin stood to her right, looking utterly flabbergasted. She tried to sit up, but realized, with a bit of frustration that she couldn't.

Justin looked like he was about to approach her, but then the portal door swung open, and Alex quickly closed her eyes and squeezed her wand, hoping she had enough power to will herself invisible.

A puff of smoke poured into the room and Alex stifled a cough as she heard perhaps the strangest sound one can hear, which was herself coughing.

"Alex, are you okay?" Justin asked, a slight hesitance in his voice, and then, sure enough, she heard herself reply.

"I think so."

"What happened?" 

"Not much."

"Really?" Justin said, and even with her eyes still shut Alex could feel his glance in her direction.

"Yeah...if you call saving an entire Wizard Rec Centre from a dragon attack nothing much! Check it out - Merlin's Hat!" Alex heard Justin exhale in shock. "Oh, by the way, we're having dragon heart for dinner."

Alex remembered this whole incident clearly. She heard the squish as Justin caught the heart, she heard her skip and laugh as she left the lair. She remembered fighting with the dragon – which really, hadn't been too hard, as she'd just said _come here doggie_ until he had fallen off of a cliff (she'd been betting on the 50/50 odds that the dragon didn't have wings). She'd only gotten the heart out in order to freak Justin, really.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Justin now standing directly above her, heart in one hand and wand in the other – his wand pointed directly at her chest.

"What's going on?" he said icily, and Alex felt strange. She'd never been subjected to such a harsh gaze from her brother before.

"I'm here to give you the dork of the year award," she managed to get out. "Congratulations."

Justin didn't smile. "Alex just retrieved Merlin's Hat."

"I know that. I remember when that happened."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm Alex, Justin. Your younger sister. But I'm from the future because I messed up some magic. Do you find that hard to believe?"

"No," Justin said, just as harshly. "I don't."

"Well, then, what's up with the interrogation?"

"A powerful magical artifact has just arrived in our home, and someone – or some_thing_ – that looks like my sister just showed up."

"Yes, because I _am _your sister, and I'm horrible with magic, and I only got that stupid hat to show you up for dad's birthday, I _remember._"

Alex could see her brother relent a little and he turned a little and seemed to think.

"There are a lot of dangerous things in the magical world..." he mused.

Alex sighed, and pulled herself up to a sitting position. "Yes, but can you think of anything more dangerous than your sister floating through time?"

Justin gave a low chuckle at that. "Not really," he said.

"Check Dad's chair," Alex said, and that earned her a bemused look from her brother. "Go on, do it, lift up the hand rest cushion."

Justin did and then she heard him really exclaim. "Oh, my god! This is... wow, this is amazing. If this is Dad's handiwork, I'm really impressed."

"I think I've heard you say that before," Alex said. Justin whipped his head back to where she was sitting and then quickly strode the length of the room back toward her.

"Alex, it is imperative that you don't tell me _anything _about the future. You have to keep everything exactly as it is, do you understand me?"

"Yes, I understand, _Dad_. Does that mean you believe I'm Alex?"

"I ran some quick detecting spells on you, and nothing came up." Justin turned back to the chair. "I think," he said slowly, "we're going to have to go over everything leading up to this point as delicately as possible, in order to keep this past as it is."

"You told me once that you thought the past couldn't be changed."

Justin glared at her, but Alex didn't mind that, as at least that seemed familiar. "Stop quoting me from the future _right now, _Alex."

"You know, this is almost like old times. Fond memories, the past. But I think it's time to make you forget that you ever saw me -" Alex lifted up her wand and tried to say the memory spell, but somehow couldn't formulate the words. After a moment, she gave up and dropped her arm.

Justin stared at Alex before speaking. "I know why you did that. And now I know you're really my sister."

"What are you talking about, I'm just too tired to do the spell, dork," Alex said, and she dropped back to her corpse pose. Justin's face came into her view.

"Doing the memory spell would help us both out, but you can't do it because you said earlier that you messed up and that means you need help, and that means you need _me._"

"I said no such thing," Alex protested.

"Come on," Justin said. "We should get out of here."

–

Justin then flashed them to his room, where he gave Alex a chicken soup that seemed to make her feel more energized, while he listened intently to her tell her story, with the occasional comments on Justin's décor thrown in. He told her not to tell him about their family in the future, or anything like that, but she did tell him about the chair, and about Future Harper, and about the cloaking pedant she now had in her possession. She didn't tell him about the visions she had before entering the lair.

"It's very interesting that Harper gave you this," Justin said as he inspected the pendant on his sister's neck. "The wizard counsel won't be able to know you're here. It also means you could be a vampire or something and my diagnostic spell would've been useless."

Alex stifled a chuckle at that. Justin frowned.

"This isn't funny. This is borderline nefarious."

Alex sighed, "Oh, come on, Justin, don't tell me you think this is some big conspiracy."

"I don't know, Alex. You're sent on this mission right before we have the wizard competition? Something just doesn't seem right. Oh, if only _my _future self were here, then we could compare notes."

"Well, you were trying to fix Dad's machine, maybe you'll wind up here, too."

"Once again, not funny! We're trying to figure out what's going on, and meeting with your past self seems dangerous, so, and I'm sorry to do this, Alex, you'll have to stay in my room until further notice."

"Oh, jeez, now you really have gone all Dad on me, you're _grounding _me."

"I'm _protecting _you from creating a rip in the space-time continuum. Possibly. There's a lot I don't know about this field. We'll expand my closet so you have a room, and create a barrier so that no one can accidentally come across you. I think the only person here when I'm not is Mom, when she vacuums."

Alex didn't mention all the times she and Max snuck in. "I wish Max was the one who found me in the lair," she said with a pout.

Justin smiled. "Is that your big regret from this fiasco?"

"No, actually my big regret is the Gigi thing," she muttered. When Justin gave her a quizzical look, she explained about Gigi and when she got to the part about her parents, he looked even more troubled.

"I'm taking back my use of the world borderline, this is straight up nefarious. Come on, get up."

"Why, where are we going?"

"Someone erased Gigi's parents' memories, so we're going to talk to them."

"But Max already _did_," Alex pointed out.

"Yes, but see, this is why you and Max should consult me. We're not going to ask them about the daughter they don't remember, we're going to ask them who came and visited them three years ago – the person who took away their memory – who they very well _might _remember."

Alex couldn't believe she hadn't thought of _that_. "But what about me?" she asked. "I've met the Hollingsworths loads of times."

"You could disguise yourself if you'd like," Justin said as he put on a coat, "but they probably don't remember anything about Gigi, including her friends, and you look different now that you're older."

That brought to mind a thing Alex hadn't thought of. "Justin," she asked, "how old are you right now?"

He blinked. "I'm eighteen, Alex."

And for the first time in what felt like years, Alex threw her head back and laughed so hard that she snorted.


End file.
